When Galaxies Collide

[Colorado CJ]

Friday night I finished shooting an interactive galaxy pair, The Whirlpool. These two galaxies are literally running into eachother, feeding off eachother and spewing stellar matter into the universe.

This is my first time shooting M51, or the Whirlpool. When the first of the many images started showing up on my screen, I was awestruck.

This is the first image completed with my new scope, a Skywatcher MN190 Mak Newt. Mak Newt designs aren't very popular for some reason, but I don't know why. They are a blend of refractor and reflector and are the best of both worlds. Both visually and image wise, mak newts perform as good as the equivalent size APO refractor, but with even less false color. This is a 7.5" mak newt. I bought it on sale for $1350. An equivalent sized APO Refractor costs between $15,000-$20,000.

After seeing what this scope can do, I think I am going to really like it!

Anyway, here is M51, or the Whirpool, shot for a total of 224 minutes. I am going to eventually shoot even more subs of this since the more information you gather, the sharper, more detailed and less grainy the image gets.

Here's the time breakdown per filter

Lum: 64 minutes
Red: 32 minutes
Green: 48 minutes
Blue: 45 minutes
H-Alpha: 35 minutes

 

[Ben Egbert]

Oh man!!! this is spectacular.

 

[JimFox]

I agree with Ben, this is spectacular!!! Your new scope defintely seems like a very wise choice for you, the results are great!

 

[AlanLichty]

Amazing - these just keep getting better. Stunning shot.

 

[Colorado CJ]

Thanks everyone! I am definitely happy with the scope, the whole setup actually.

I just need to get more time in it, and work on getting the smallest stars possible.

Luckily, I can build on what I already have. Some Astrophotographers use years old data combined with their newest data to build "time" on an image.

 

[Jim Dockery]

Beautiful work, and a very interesting insight you are providing into an aspect of photography I admire, but won't be doing myself.

 

[Leslie Hunter]

Stunning!

 

[Mike Lewis]

Andrew,

Great addition of color data. Yes, than MN190 is definitely getting the job done. Lovely colors with the post processing on this one.

How much backfocus does that OTA have? Wondering if it could accomodate an ONAG with the ASI1600 and filter wheel.

ML

 

[Colorado CJ]

Andrew,

Great addition of color data. Yes, than MN190 is definitely getting the job done. Lovely colors with the post processing on this one.

How much backfocus does that OTA have? Wondering if it could accomodate an ONAG with the ASI1600 and filter wheel.

ML

That would definitely work.

The stock focuser has a funky built in extension so you can use it for visual. You have to pull it out and tighten it to get it close to focus with the camera, then adjust the focus with the focus wheels. The focuser itself doesn't have a huge amount of movement, but with the built in extender, it works well.

 

[Bob Denton]

This is great

 

[Douglas Sherman]

Beautiful, Andrew.